Caving | Little Brush Creek Cave
Hype:
Located high in the Uintah Mountains, Little Brush Creek Cave is a popular destination for cavers. It can be accessed year round, but entrance into the cave in not feasible from the first spring melt to the end of summer, as the entire Little Brush Creek, along with thousands of acres of snowmelt, flows into the cave. The cave sees an average of 250 visitors per year, January being the most popular time to visit. It is the longest cave in Utah at 5.93 miles and 658 feet deep. It is the 37th deepest cave in the US. The cave is part of a larger caving system, and is similar to its brother, Big Brush Creek Cave. Ice crystal formation up to a foot long, and ice structures over 10' long, make this cave an amazing winter wonderland. Inside the cave, passage ways are narrow and cold. Many tunnels are plugged with logs and debris forced into it in past floods. Much of the cave is spent crawling and winding over very tight passages.Cave Type: Horizontal
Time: 0+ Hours
Length: 5.93 miles
Depth: 653 ft
Gear: Headlamps, gloves, knee pads, food, water, first aid kit,
Fees: None
Recommended Ages:
 | 0-3 |
 | 4-11 |
 | 12-19 |
 | 20-49 |
 | 50-69 |
 | 70+ |
Recommended Months to Visit:
| Jan |
| Feb |
| Mar |
| Apr |
| May |
| Jun |
| Jul |
| Aug |
| Sep |
| Oct |
| Nov |
| Dec |
Permits: Open
Links: www.mojaveunderground.com
Navigate to 40.709164, -109.500616.
Closest City or Region: Vernal, Utah
Coordinates: 40.709164, -109.500616
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Tara Dye, Anthony Dye, Ondylyn Wagner, Adam Anderson,
We drove up Friday after work and camped on the side of the highway so we could get an early start in the cave on Saturday. Adam slept in his car while Anthony, Ondy, Tara, and I slept in a tent on the snow. It was one of the coldest nights of camping I've ever experienced. In the morning, the thermometer in the truck said 1 degree Fahrenheit, but it felt so much colder. Anthony grabbed the wrong sleeping bag and brought one with a broken zipper, so he was especially cold. We woke up at about 6 a.m. and savored the last minute of sleeping bag warmth before putting our wetsuits on. We ended up cramming into Adams car to get changed because it was a little bit warm. We ate frozen bagles for breakfast and hiked about a third of a mile to the mouth of the cave. Back at home, the weather was nice, so I didn't even think to wear snow boots. Tennis shoes it was.
We got to the mouth of Little Brush Creek Cave and climbed down into the entrance. We stashed some clothes at the entrance then began our descent into the cave. We went through the entrance maze, past Corner Pool, past Harold Square, then we took the right fork. We didn't go down Onyx Passage. We kept straight, but the passage dead-ended before we got to Grand Bypass. It just filled up with branches and sediment and got too tight to continue. We tried digging for a bit but didn't make much progress, so we turned around. This time, we took the fork to Glowing Stream. We went down No Name Passage and took the right fork to Hardscrabble, but that passage was too tight as well. It also dead-ended.
We backtracked and by this point, Tara was tired of army crawling and didn't want to keep going. Her wetsuit was restricting her arm mobility and she was super tired. We decided to split up for a half hour. Tara headed back to the H Room where she could stand up and wait in a more comfortable location. She explored the H Room up to Drafty Attic and over to Sewer Passage and waited for me at the drop from Glowing Stream down to the H Room.
Meanwhile, Adam, Anthony, Ondy, and I went through Bone Passage, Humming Passage, Drain Room, Shower Room and Grand Canyon Passage. We made it to Pillar Room before we used up our "exploring without Tara time" and I turned back to report on what we had found. Adam, Anthony, and Ondy continued all the way down to Horseshoe Canyon.
From the Pillar Room, I backtracked to meet up with Tara. We met up at the H Room and I convinced her that the rest of the cave was worth exploring because after Bone Passage, most of the cave was walking rather than crawling. The maps were deceiving, because they showed width of passages but not height, so the easiest passages ended up being the skinny, tall ones that were more like slot canyons. So back we went through No Name Passage for the umpteenth time and proceeded to the Pillar Room, where I had told the others we would meet them. We got there first and explored around The Balcony and White Stream to the Lower White Maze. We didn't want to go too far and miss the others, so we headed back to the Pillar Room to wait. After waiting for a while, we got impatient and thought we'd get a head start on the trek back to the entrance. We left some snacks and a message for them at the Pillar Room and headed back to the surface.
As we got closer to the surface, the temperature dropped. Our wetsuits were wet, and as we crawled on the below-freezing rock, the rocks froze to our wetsuits. We all looked like gravel monsters with rocks hanging off us. We made it to the surface and hiked back to camp. The others met us at camp a few minutes later. We changed into dry clothes and turned the heater up.
There were a couple of groups of cross-country skiers that got their cars stuck in the parking area, so we helped them back to the highway. We stopped for dinner on the way home.
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Spanish Fields First Ward Priests and Teachers,
We took the young men through Little Brush Creek Cave on our way to Flaming Gorge. We made sure to check the stream flow and the weather forecast before going in the cave. We started with about 18 boys, and after going in a short distance, most of the boys and all of the other leaders turned back. There was a lot of belly crawling, and it wasn't really their thing. About 6 boys and I made it in about 600 feet to Harold Square before we turned around and went back. The cave had a lot of pools, and we weren't dressed to get wet, so we chimneyed or climbed over and around the pools. On the way back out, one of the boys lost his grip and fell in the water, where he tipped over and got soaked up to his neck. He had his phone in his pocket, which got ruined. I thought the cave was awesome, and several of the boys also couldn't get enough.
Tight Squeezes
Climbs
Water
Temperature
Headlamps required
Crawls
Non-potable Water - filterable
Road Access is Dirt - Low Clearance
Access Road is 2WD Accessible
Camp Sites: 
Caving: 
Fun Places: